Weston Turville Castle

Motte and twin baileys. The works apparently consisted of a motte with surrounding ditch and a bailey to the south of the motte; of a second bailey on the east, only a part of the ditch remains. Renn found a fragment of Saxo-Norman pottery here and gave it to Aylesbury Museum.

After the Conquest the manor of Weston belonged to Bishop Odo, of Bayeux, half brother of the Conqueror, and Henry I. gave it to the Earl of Mellent, created Earl of Leicester for his zeal and services in securing that King’s usurpation in opposition to Duke Robert Curthose.

In the reign of John it was held by the family of Turville, whose name it acquired ; but (temp. Henry III.) the manor was divided into three, and in the middle of the fourteenth century one of these portions belonged to the family of de Molyns. In 7 Edward Ill. (1333) John de Molyns and Egidia his wife had a licence to crenellate “the site of their manor of Weston Turvill, Buks,” and there are yet very distinct traces of the moat of this castellated house.

The manor of Molyns was sold to the Duke of Buckingham, and was bought about thirty-five years ago by Baron Anthony de Rothschild.

At the manor-farm of Hyde are traces of moats, arched doors and cellars, which must have belonged to a large mansion. (Castles Of England, Sir James D. Mackenzie, 1896)